Avataress: The Last Airbender Maiden
by Storychan
Summary: What if Aang were born a girl? And the entire Gaang had their genders flipped, too? GENDERFLIP of EVERYONE in the Avatar universe! F!Aang/M!Katara, eventual F!Zuko/M!Mai and Rated T because I'm R &R!
1. The Girl in the Ice

Avataress, The Last Airbender Maiden

Chapter 1: The Girl in the Ice

By: Storychan

_Earth. Water. Fire. Air._

_Long ago, the 4 nations lived in harmony. Everything changed when the Fire Queen's army attacked. Only one woman, the Avataress, she who could master all 4 elements, could save us. But when the world needed her most?_

_She vanished. 100 years passed and my sister Sonna and I discovered an Airbender maiden named Aan. Aaan's going to need a lot of training before she can save anyone. I'm just one guy….but I believe Aan can save the world._

"Guys are great at fishing". That was a well-perpetuated stereotype in the Southern Water Tribe. "Girls aren't." That was another one. Neither were true for the two children on a small boat dodging icebergs in a small corner of the South Pole.

The boy, his dark hair tied up in a braid ponytail because he was "too busy being the man of the house" to cut it, with blue eyes portraying a startling amount of sensitivity for a tribal teen of his gender, and blue shorts and a blue sleeveless kimono-style top that was his uniform in these summer months, sat quietly in the back of the boat, propelling it with his Waterbending skills. It came more naturally to him than fishing.

The girl, her hair, a similar shade of darkness to her brother's, tied up in a spiky ponytail, and a tan deeper than his from her frequent sojourns into the outdoors, wore a sporty sleeveless blue dress with a kimono-style neck and was manipulating the fishing spear just fine, thank you very much!

"Kataro," she sighed. "Can't you make the boat go any faster? I'm huuuuuuungry."

"Whining isn't an attractive trait for a girl, Sonna," the boy, Kataro, scolded teasingly. "Just focus on your fishing, OK?"

"I'm TRYING to!" cried Sonna. "But we've been at this for hours!"

"Getting angry will only make you get wrinkled faster," Kataro kidded. "Relax."

"Did you just call me 'wrinkled'?" Sonna huffed, wildly spearing at an elusive fish. "Well, at least I'm not a _girly boy_!"

"WHAT?" cried Kataro. "That's not even funny, Sonna! I'm technically the leader of the tribe since Mom is away. People made fun of Mom when she took over tribal leadership after Dad was taken away from us, saying she was too soft and feminine to be boss in wartime. What do you think people are going to say about ME if my own sister is mocking me like that?" The waves around the boat began to undulate with an alarming ferocity of pace as Kataro spoke.

"Chill, Kataro!" cried Sonna. "You're rocking the boat!"

"Take it back!" Kataro growled. The boat began rushing over the waves at a dangerous pace. "Now!"

"OK! Whatever! I take it back, Kataro! Just slow this boat down or we're going to-" Sonna's eyes go wide. They were headed straight for a huge iceberg! "-CRASH!"

Kataro rapidly tried to turn the boat around, but he just couldn't do it. The iceberg loomed closer. "Sonna, hold on!" he cried. Sonna whipped out the boomerang she kept for her own defense and dug into the boat's floor.

CRASH! Their boat struck the iceberg so hard that Sonna's boomerang was ripped from its hold on the boat, and she and Kataro tumbled into the deep.

Sonna reached the surface first. "Kataro!" she cried. "Bro, are you OK?"

Kataro breached the surface in that instant, choking on salty seawater. "I'm fine," he coughed.

Sonna began to swim towards him. "Kataro, I'm sorry that I- Are you even listening to me?"

Kataro wasn't. "Come here, Sonna!" he called.

"What is it, Kataro?" Sonna cried. She swam towards where he was, and then she saw it. Her eyes widened in shock. Before them was a perfect sphere ofcrystalline ice…..and within it was a shadowy form…

"A girl!" cried Kataro. "There's a girl trapped in that iceberg!"

"No way," said Sonna, shocked. She'd lived in the South Pole all her life, and she'd NEVER seen something like that! "What the heck? Is she…..even alive, Kataro?"

"I think she is," said Kataro. "We have to dig her out!"

"I'll do it myself," said Sonna, smirking. She rushed the iceberg with her boomerang in a surge of feminism and adrenaline. "I'll crack this thing open without anybody's help!"

The boomerang bounced off, flying back into Sonna's hands. "Aargh," she sighed, feeling as useless as the frozen damsel.

The siblings' ears perked up when they heard a gigantic CRACK! The iceberg was falling apart!

"Sonna, get out of the way!" Kataro cried. Sonna threw herself on a shelf of ice just as splinters of the sphere slammed into the water she'd been swimming in moments ago.

"Are you alright?" Kotaro cried, standing on the ice himself.

"I'm fine," sniffed Sonna. "Hey, look at that!"

Kataro looked. His blue eyes widened with surprise. The girl who'd been trapped in the ice was lying on the ground, inches from Kataro's furry boot. Now that Kataro got a look at her, she was kind of….cute.

She was small and childlike, and wore an orange dress with a yellow Mandarin collar. Her eyes were closed, and Kataro couldn't see what color her hair was because it was covered by a pale orange headdress….no, not a headdress, Kataro thought. A habit. The girl wore the habit of a nun on her round, sweet, sleeping head. In her hands she clutched a delicate paper fan.

Kataro kneeled next to her, raising a shaking hand to check her pulse. His hand snapped back as the girl blinked up at him, revealing curious, cute grey eyes.

The girl stared up at Kataro for almost a full minute before he managed to untie his tongue.  
>"Are you alright?" he asked timidly, wrapping his arms around the girl's shaking body for warmth. She'd been trapped in an iceberg…she was shaking with cold.<p>

"Hey!" Sonna cried, stomping over to them. "Who are you? K-keep away from my brother." She pointed her boomerang at the girl warningly.

The girl spoke. "My name is Aan," she said in a soft voice.

She stood, and Kataro noticed blue arrow markings on her tiny arms. He also spotted the end of a blue arrow peeking out from under her habit on her forehead. "I'm Kataro," he said nervously. "This is my sister, Sonna."

"Are you Waterbenders?" asked Aan weakly.

"I am," said Kataro. "My sister is not."

"That's cool," Aan said. "I am…..an Airbender." Then, she fainted, her small form landing softly on the ice. She was only a little girl, after all.


	2. The Oldest Little Girl In The World

Avataress: The Last Airbender Maiden, Chapter 2: The Oldest Little Girl In The World

By Storychan

**Hi, everyone! I'm so, SO sorry I haven't updated in forever! I've had so much to do. -_- But you've been reviewing and asking for updates and favoriting – THANK YOU! – so I won't make you wait anymore! I'm watching the series over again to make sure I get this right.**

**I hope you enjoy it!**

**-Storychan**

"An AIRBENDER?" Sonna cried.

"But that's…..impossible…." muttered Kataro, jaw dropping.

Sonna began poking the unconscious Aaan with her boomerang. "HEY! Wake up, wake up! You can't just say something like that and then konk out on us!"

"Cut it out, Sonna! You could hurt her!" Kataro scolded.

Aaan opened her eyes and blinked sleepily. "It's ok. I'm fine," she muttered. "Kataro, was it?"

"Yeah?"

"C-come closer…"

Kataro blushed. Was it really ok for him to draw so near into the personal space of a girl he just met? Was it improper? Especially since she was a nun? But….she did ask for it, so he guessed it was ok and obeyed.

"There's something I want from you…." Aaan continued.

"Y-yes?"

Aaan broke into a megawatt smile and high decibel level Kataro didn't expect from a girl raised in a convent. "WILL YOU GO PENGUIN SLEDDING WITH ME?"

00o

The three children out on the polar ice were no longer thinking about the light that had burst out of the iceberg when Aaan crawled out of it. But someone, in a small, steel yacht sailing through the frigid polar waters, could think of nothing else. That someone was a girl with long, sleek, jet-black hair tied back into a high ponytail long enough to touch her mid-back, creamy alabaster skin, amber eyes ringed with stylish black liner, red-rouged lips currently set in a moody pout, and a trendy scarlet dress with fancy padded shoulders. She would be the prettiest girl in all four of the nations – if not for the angry red scar that covered more than half of her otherwise-perfect face. That girl was named Zuka.

"Aunt Iroko!" Zuka cried. "That light! Do you know what that light _means?!"_

An older woman in a red kimono and shawl, her body made short by osteoporosis and stout by a life indulding in tea cakes, with her grey hair set in a sensible bun but her mouth set in an easygoing smile, looked up from her table of Pai Sho tiles and sighed, "That I won't get to finish my game?"

"No!" Zuka snapped. "It means my search is coming to an end! That light had to come from a powerful source, right?"

"It's probably just the celestial lights, my dear," replied Iroko skeptically. "We've been over this before, Princess Zuka. I don't want you to get your hopes up. Why don't you come and have a tea party with me?"

"I DON'T CARE ABOUT TEA PARTIES!" cried Zuka, outraged. "I'M NOT SOME VAPID LITTLE GIRL WHO WANTS TO BE CUTE AND PLAY ALL DAY! I'M A STRONG WOMAN ON A MISSION! A MISSION TO CAPTURE THE AVATARESS! HELMSWOMAN, STEER A COURSE TOWARDS THE LIGHT!"

Iroko flipped over a tile and sighed, once again, at her niece.

00o

Meanwhile, back on the ice, Kataro considered Aan's request. "Uh….ok!"

"YAAAAY! But….what's going on here?"

"That's what I wanna know!" Sonna chimed in. "How'd you get in the ice? And why aren't you a Nunsicle?"

"I….don't know," Aan confessed.

Just then, a low growl sounded from the other side of the iceberg. Sonna reflexively hid behind Kataro. Aaan, on the other hand, ran right towards the noise.

"Appa!" she called merrily. "There you are, girl! Wake up!"

Sonna and Kataro timidly rounded the corner and found a strange creature with snow white fur and blue markings like Aan's.

Sonna screamed. Aaan merely laughed and petted the creature fondly. "Wake up, girl!" she grinned. The creature rose. "Attagirl! Who's the cutest flying cow? You are! Yes you are!"

"Wait…" Sonna blinked. "Did you say FLYING COW?"

"Yup," replied Aan perkily. "Well, technically, she's a flying bison, but a female bison is called a cow!"

The flying cow chose this moment to sneeze explosively, flinging snot all over Sonna's clothes.

"EWWWWW!" Sonna whined. "Do you KNOW how long these took to sew? There are NO MALLS around here! So I had to make them MYSELF! Which is SO BORING compared to stuff like fishing! And now they're RUINED!"

"Ah….I'm so sorry!" said Aan with a polite bow. "You probably need to go home and change now….Do you live around here?"

Kataro opened his mouth to speak, but Sonna shushed him. "Don't answer that, bro!" she warned. "She could be a spy for the Fire Navy! Some kind of honey trap!"

"Right," snarked Kataro, rolling his eyes. "Because little girls and nuns are the two top demographics most likely to be evil vamps."

"Oh, like I'm REALLY supposed to believe she's an ACTUAL Airbender nun, Kataro?"

Aan was about to say something to defend herself, but instead she sneezed. The Water Tribe siblings' jaws dropped as she flew into the air in the process!

Kataro, in awe, watched her ascend. Then, he noticed he could see her bloomers from this angle, and, flushing, chivalrously looked away until he heard her hit the ground again.

"WHAT WAS THAT?" Sonna cried. "That was like ten feet you just flew!"

"Oh, I think it was more than that," Aan replied after getting up and dusting herself off.

"I think," smirked Kataro, "that it's proof she IS a real Airbender nun."

"Freaky lights," Sonna rambled, "flying cows, and now a flying nun…..That's it! I must have midnight sun madness! I'm going back to where things make sense! I'm heading…" She turned and realized the ice she stood upon was in the center of a lot of water and nothing else. No icy stepping stones on which to storm off. "…..Home."

"If you guys are stuck," Aan offered, "Appa and I can give you a ride. Here, girl!" She flew up into her saddle and grabbed the reigns.

Kataro climbed onto Appa's back. Sonna, on the other hand, stayed on the ground and crossed her arms. "I'm not getting on that thing," she declared. "It's a monster!"

"Would you rather wait for another monster to show up?" asked Kataro. "Like the ones in Gramps-Gramps' stories that you pretend you're not afraid of, then ask me check for in your sleeping bag with my lantern?" he teased.

"I'm not scared!" protested Sonna, flushing with embarrassment. "I'm a big girl!"

"Fine, then you're ok with us leaving you here then, right?"

Five seconds later, a fuming Sonna sat next to her brother on the cow's back.

"Ok," Aan announced, "First time flyers, hold on tight! Appa-girl, yip yip!"

Appa rose into the air…..and plopped right back down into the water with an anticlimactic splash.

"Amazing," remarked Sonna sarcastically.

"Appa's just tired," Aan assured. "Let her rest a little, and she'll be soaring through the skies like a gorilla – parrot!"

Kataro looked hopeful. Aan smiled.

"Why are you smiling?"

"I-I'm not smiling!"

0o0

Back on the cold steel ship, Iroko stood in the doorway to the deck in her red mumu. "I'm going to bed now," she warned Zuka, yawning. "All girls need their beauty rest….That means you, too, Princess Zuka."

"I'm not really concerned with beauty," Zuka replied glumly. _How could I be, when I look like this? _"I just want to find the Avataress."

"Your mother tried," Iroko recalled. "So did your grandmother, and your great-grandmother before her. None could do it."

"That's because their honor wasn't at stake," Zuka said coolly. "This cowardly bitch's hundred years of hiding are about to end."

00o

Sonna, Kataro, and Aan continued their sojourn home as Appa paddled slowly through the waves. It was growing dark.

"Hey, Aan?" Kataro mumbled sleepily.

"Yes?"

"Being an Airbender maiden….you wouldn't happen to know what happened to the Avataress, would you?"

Aan's eyes widened and she turned away from Kataro abruptly, her habit flapping behind her from the whiplash. "N-no! Nope! Sorry! Didn't know her! I mean, I knew people that knew her, but…I didn't! OK?"

"Oh…ok," Kataro accepted. "Good night."

"Sleep tight," Aan muttered, her habit concealing her guilty face as she fell asleep.

0oo

_Lightning flashed around Aan's head as she woke up with a jolt. Rain soaked her habit, her dress, beneath to her hair and skin. Appa was falling….She was falling! She was going to crash into the water! She was crashing! The waves went over head…she was sinking deeper and deeper…Suddenly, something awakened inside of her…Her fists slammed together, almost of their own accord, and ice sprung from them, forming a frozen sphere around her shaking, drowning body….._

_A voice was calling her…."Aan…..Aan.."_

"AAN! Wake up!"

00o

Aan jolted awake and found herself covered by a fur blanket, sitting in a tepee. _The Southern Water Tribe, _she realized. _That's right….I forgot….._

"Good, you're awake," said a male voice, and Aan saw Kataro was beside her. This must be his house, then.

"I was getting worried," Kataro said. "Everyone wants to see you now that you're feeling better. Please get ready," he said, and turned to open the flap of the teepee and leave. "I-I'll give you your privacy."

Aan realized that her dress was gone, and so was her habit….her silky hair was visible, and so was her lacey white under-shirt (she was still too small to need a bra) and bloomers. She blushed and gathered the blanket around her. "Th-thanks."

Kataro didn't mean to peek – That would be wrong! He was a gentleman! – but he reflexively turned his head back towards the sound of Aan's voice to say "you're welcome" – that was when he saw it, and gasped. She had the tip of a blue arrow on her forehead, peeking out from under her wispy brown – _so THAT'S what color her hair is…_ bangs. Furthermore, as his eyes travelled down her body – _OHMIGODWHATAMIDOING _– he saw that she had blue arrows running down her pale arms and legs, as well.

He averted his eyes, but couldn't stop his gasp. He didn't say anything. She knew he'd looked now. He hoped she wouldn't slap him.

Instead, all she did was, a few minutes later, say, "Uh…I'm d-dressed now. You can open your eyes." Flushing, he did, and led her into the village square.

"Aan, meet the entire village! Entire village, Aan!"

Aan curtsied to the villagers, but they just shied away from her. "Did Appa sneeze on me?" she asked.

An old man with snow white hair braided in Kataro's style and a long white beard shooked his head. "It's just that…nobody has seen an Airbender maiden in a hundred years," he explained. "We thought they were extinct until my grandson and granddaughter found you, young lady."

"Ex…..tinct?" repeated Aan, eyes wide with fear and shock. Kataro put a supportive hand on her shoulder. "This is my grandfather," he introduced.

"Call me Gramps-Gramps," said the old man.

Suddenly, Sonna was poking at the paper fan that Aan carried with her. "Is this some sort of weapon? Like, its tipped with metal so you can slice people's heads off with it? Or is it just a fashion accessory?"

"Neither," Aan replied with a slight smile. "It's for bending." The fan unfolded without her touching it.

"Magic trick!" cried a little villager boy. "Do it again!"

"Not magic. Airbending," Aan clarified. "I use this fan to direct air currents, so I can fly around and stuff!"

"Last time I checked," Sonna snorted, "Humans couldn't fly."

"Check again," Aan grinned, and waved the fan downwards, pushing herself up off the ground and into the air! She then waved the fan sideways to steer herself through the sky.

Every villager just watched, agape and fascinated, especially Kataro…until Aan crashed headlong into a wall of snow.

"Awwww my watchtower!" Sonna whined.

"That was amazing," complimented Kataro, ignoring his sister. Aan smiled.

"Great," Sonna grumbled. "You're an Airbender maiden, Aan, and Kataro's a Waterbender boy….together you can waste time all day long!" She stormed off to gather more snow.

"Enough playing, young man!" Gramps-Gramps called to Kataro. "You've got chores to do."

Kataro left Aan and followed his grandfather. "She's the _real deal_, Gramps-Gramps, I'm telling you!" he whispered excitedly. "I've found a bending teacher!"

"Try not to pin all your hopes on this girl," Gramps-Gramps advised.

"But…she's a really classy lady, you know?"

Gramps-Gramps was silent, and sat and watched Aan try to unfreeze her fingers from her fan.

00o

Back on the ship, Zuka threw scorching orange flames at two guardswomen her aunt had recruited to help her train.

"Again!" Iroko barked. "Firebending comes from the breath, not from those tomboyish-looking muscles you've insisted on getting! Your breath is supposed to extend through your limbs and become FIRE!" She bended fire herself on the last syllable.

"I've done this a thousand times," Zuka complained. "Give me the next drill! I' m more than ready!"

"No, you're impatient. More basics… AGAIN!"

Zuka hurled a firey kick at one of the guardswomen, growing angry. "The Sagesses tell us that the Avataress has had more than a century to master all 4 elements!" she began her tantrum. "To defeat her, I'm going to need more than stupid basics! You WILL teach me the advanced set!"

"Very well," grumbled Iroko reluctantly. "But first…I must…finish my roast duck!" She om-nom-nommed as Zuka looked on, incredulous.

0o0

"Alright, ladies!" Sonna lectured. "When we face a Firebender, we show no fear, right? We have to show that we can't be pushed around just because of our gender! We'll fight, and we'll win! We are WOMEN, and they will hear us ROAR, right?!"

Her audience, not really women, but_ girls_ of the village, the oldest only 8, stared at her blankly.

"I have to go potty!" one declared.

"All the men of the tribe have left us to go fight in the war!" Sonna preached. "So we women have to fight all the time to protect the homefront! No time for potty breaks!"

"But I REALLY have to go…."

"Fine," Sonna sighed. "Who else has to go potty?"

Every girl raised their hand.

Sonna facepalmed.

"Sonna!" Kataro called. "Have you seen Aan?"

Aan appeared from out of behind a snowy wall, screaming, "Kataro! Come see my snow-Appa I made!"

Sonna demanded, "Get her out of here, Kataro! This lesson is for WARRIOR women only!"

She then discovered that her "warrior women" were using Appa's tail as a slide, and yoinking on her udders to see how her milk tasted mixed with snow.

"Are you kidding me?!" Sonna shrieked. "We don't have time for fun and games with a war going on!"

"War?" Aan blinked. "What war?"

"You're kidding, right?"

Aan looked serious for a second, and was about to respond, but then a penguin waddled up behind Sonna.

"PENGUIIIIIIIIIIN!" she cried, chasing after it.

"She's kidding, right?" Sonna asked Kataro again.

00o

"COME BACK MR. PENGUIN! SLED WITH ME!" was what Kataro found Aan yelling when he followed her. Kataro couldn't help but smile at her childish exuberance.

"I have a way with animals," Aan grinned, and began waddling like a penguin. "HONK! HOOONK!"

Kataro laughed. "Tell you what, Aan," he negotiated, "I'll help you catch a penguin, if you'll teach me Waterbending."

"Ok…but…" Aan argued. "I'm an Airbender. Isn't there someone in your tribe who could teach you better?"

"No," Kataro said sadly. "You're looking at the only Waterbender in the South Pole."

Aan frowned. "That's terrible! Waterbenders need to have Waterbender teachers!" An idea struck her. "What about the North Pole? They've got lots of Waterbenders there, right? Maybe one of them could teach you!"

"But," Kataro disagreed, "we haven't had contact with our sister tribe in years! And it's not like they're just around the glacier….they're on the other side of the globe."

"But you forget," Aan smiled, "I have a flying cow! I can personally take you there! I'll get you a master, Kataro!"

"I-I don't know…." Kataro stammered. "I've never left home before…."

"Well, you think about it," Aan suggested. "In the meantime, can you help me catch this penguin?"

Kataro nodded. "Observe, young novice," he intoned. "Penguin catching is an ancient and sacred art…Behold!" He brandished a fish and threw it at Aan. The penguins swarmed her. Her giggles were adorable.

00o

Soon, they were riding penguins, sledding down the snowy hill.

"I haven't done this since I was a boy!" Kataro laughed heartily.

"You still ARE a boy!" Aan laughed back. They slid through an icy tunnel and onto the snowy shore before disembarking and letting their penguins waddle away. Then, suddenly, Aan looked up and things got deadly serious.

"What's that?" she asked, pointing to a creepy, rusted ruin in front of them.

"A Fire Navy ship," said Kataro mournfully. "And a very bad memory for my people."

Aan approached the downed vessel, mesmerized.

"Aan, don't!" Kataro warned. "It could be booby-trapped!"

"I'm not scared," Aan said simply. "I mean…you'll be there to protect me, right?"

Knowing he'd regret it, Kataro followed her into the wreck. It was the creepiest place he'd ever been. Soon, they found a room filled with weapons.

"This place has haunted my people since Gramps-Gramps was a boy," Kataro expounded sadly, shivering. "It was part of the Fire Nation's first attacks."

"Whoa!" Aan ordered, showing all signs of incredible emotional duress. "Back up! I have friends all over the world…including the Fire Nation! And I've never heard about any war!" She began to cry. Kataro hugged her before asking, "Aan…how long were you in that iceberg?"

"I-I don't kn-know!" Aan sniffled, wiping her tears on Kataro's fur coat. "A f-few days, maybe?"

"Aan….I think it may have been more like a hundred years."

Aan's knees wobbled and gave way. She sank to her knees and began to cry harder. She was just a little girl. This was all too much. "NOOO!" she bawled. "T-there's no way! Do I l-look like a 112-year-old lady to you?"

"Think about it, Aan. The war is a hundred years old. And you don't know about it….you must have been in that iceberg the whole time."

"A….a hundred years….." she sniffled, wiping her tears on her sleeves. "I can't believe it…."

"I'm sorry, Aan," Kataro said, stroking the habit that covered her hair. "But….maybe there's a bright side to all this?"

"I did," Aan realized, "get to meet you."

Kataro smiled and Aan managed a smile back at him. He had wound up having to protect her after all – not from Fire Navy ghosts, but from her own despair. "Let's get out of here," he suggested, chivalrously helping her up.

They began to walk together towards the exit when Aan's dainty foot found a trip wire!

The doors slammed shut. "What was it you said about booby traps?" said Aan, shaking.

Pipes began to rattle as smoke poured from them and a flare shot into the sky!

Aan spotted a hole that had been ripped into the ceiling by that century-ago battle. "Let's go!" he said, taking Kataro's hand and leading him to safety.

_Shouldn't it be the other way around? _Kataro wondered as they scale down the snowy cliffs, hand in hand.

0oo

With her telescope, Princess Zuka was watching them. "The last Airbender maiden…" she muttered. "Surprisingly agile for her old age." She summoned a guardswoman.

"Fetch my aunt!" she demanded. "Tell her I've found the Avataress!" Her telescope zeroed in on the village.

"And her hiding place…."


End file.
